Easy Homemade Gochujang Recipe – Almost Instant!

Homemade gochujang recipe that allows you to have a ready-to-eat gochujang in just a couple hours! What? That’s almost instant in the Korean fermentation world!! Is that possible?? Is it any good? You may ask… And my answer is YES and Yes, I mean, it’s pretty good considering it is ready in just few hours vs months.

BTW, if you want to go all the way and make it the slow, traditional way using yeotgireum, try my very popular traditional gochujang recipe.

So I have to say I was pretty skeptical when I first learned this easy and quick homemade gochujang recipe from a temple food instructor Ms. Han a few years back while in Korea. I first met her while attending a temple food (sachal eumsik 사찰음식) class. Afterwards we kind of became friends… During class, she shared on how temple food helped her regain her health after having suffered with various health issues for so many years. Several years before, she said she was an art student in Italy and because she was so busy with her studies, she did not even have time to grocery shop properly let alone cooking for herself. So she said she ate just canned and instant foods all the time. Little by little, her health started to deteriorate with skin issues and other stomach issues. Things got so bad that she had to give up her studies and come back home to Korea. After coming back to Korea, she tried everything to cure her illnesses but nothing really helped until she decided to totally change her diet and went fully into temple food. She said after 6 months or so of cooking and eating temple food, her health slowly got back to normal and now, although she still has sensitive skin, she told us that she has no other health issues. So, naturally, she became a fan of temple food!

In 2014, when I opened my cooking studio in Seoul, she shared this easy and quick ready-to-eat gochujang recipe as a gift to me. And I was recently reminded of this recipe while I was making my gochujang for this year. I know this instant homemade gochujang recipe will never have the complex flavors that my authentic gochujang recipe (also on my blog) will develop over time but I know that this easy homemade gochujang recipe is still much better than the store bought ones – both in terms of flavor and health (no corn syrup and very little gluten).

The main difference between the two recipes is the milled malt barley. This quick and easy homemade gochujang recipe does not use any milled malt barley but just uses Korean rice syrup (jocheong 조청). But jocheong is made from rice and milled malt barley (yeotgireum 엿기름) so in some ways we are not going too far off the original recipe.

BTW, when I say ‘quick’, I mean quicker than my original recipe. 2 days + months of fermentation VS 2 hrs + few days of fermentation (optionally).

So here’s how you can make your own –

EASY HOMEMADE GOCHUJANG RECIPE

Makes: 4 cups Total Time: 2:40 hrs (Active: 40 min) Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients (** you can buy all the needed ingredients from my store – see Fermentation category)

In a pot (preferable flat bottomed and uniform sides), mix water and sweet rice flour. Mix it well with a whisk. Bring to boil, stirring often to prevent any lumps from forming and to make a paste. (much like sweet rice paste for kimchi)

sweet flour and water in pot for gochujang

When it starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 min. or so until it is fully thickened to a paste. Stirring often to avoid lumps.

sweet flour paste for gochujang

Add 1 cup rice syrup to sweet rice flour paste and mix. You can add more if you want a sweeter gochujang.

rice syrup in sweet rice paste

Once you mix the syrup, the paste will become watery, no longer thick. That’s fine. Just continue to simmer for another 20-25 minutes until the volume reduces about 20%. Tip – you can measure the 20% reduction of liquid by using a chopstick to measure the height of the pot at the beginning and throughout. So if the height was 10 cm to start, you can stop when it is 8 cm. Note this will work only if you have a pot that is uniform in shape i.e. the diameter of the bottom and top of the pot is the same.

Turn off heat and let it cool.

rice syrup sweet flour liquid for gochujang recipe

Cooling time will be different based on your room temperature but for me it took about 2 hrs to cool the rice paste + rice syrup mixture from 3. It doesn’t have to be cold, just room temp. I transferred it to this glass measuring cup to cool it more quickly. You can always cool it in the fridge or in an ice bath to shorten the cooling time.

Add meju powder, chili powder and salt to cooled rice syrup liquid.

meju chili powder salt for gochujang

Use a whisk and mix everything well until there are almost no lumps.

easy gochujang recipe mix

And there you go! You now have instant gochujang that you can use right away!!

In a pot (preferable flat bottomed and uniform sides), mix water and sweet rice flour. Mix it well with a whisk. Bring to boil, stirring often to prevent any lumps from forming and to make a paste. (much like sweet rice paste for kimchi)

When it starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 min. or so until it is fully thickened to a paste. Stirring often to avoid lumps.

Add 1 cup rice syrup to sweet rice flour paste and mix. You can add more if you want a sweeter gochujang.

Turn off heat and let it cool.Cooling time will be different based on your room temperature but for me it took about 2 hrs to cool the rice paste + rice syrup mixture from 3.

Add meju powder, chili powder and salt to cooled rice syrup liquid.

Add meju powder, chili powder and salt to cooled rice syrup liquid.

Use a whisk and mix everything well until there are almost no lumps.

Recipe Notes

Add couple Tbs of soju or sake if it feels too thick. Store in fridge to extend its shelf life. Let your gochujang mature a little more for 2-3 days in the fridge or at cool temperature before using it for even more flavor.

Nutrition Facts

Easy Homemade Gochujang Recipe That’s Almost Instant!

Amount Per Serving

Calories 301

% Daily Value*

Sodium 731mg30%

Potassium 15mg0%

Total Carbohydrates 80g27%

Sugars 50g

Protein 3g6%

Calcium6.3%

Iron0.4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Notes

Buy special fine chili powder that is made specifically for gochujang (고추장용) or grind it very fine, like ground black pepper.

Store in fridge to extend its shelf life.

Let your gochujang mature a little more for 2-3 days in the fridge or at cool temperature before using it for even more flavor.

It is important that the rice paste is cooled (not cold but room temp). If you add meju powder to hot liquid, the smell of meju powder will be too strong.

If gochujang mixture seems to be too thick, you can add 1-3 Tbs of sake or soju. Mine came out a little on the thick side – I like mine that way.

If you have maesil cheong (green plum syrup), you can add 1-2 Tbs for added flavor and sweetness. Now, you have Maesil flavored Gochujang. You can make your own maesil cheong or buy it.

Comments

Hai, Thank you so much for your recipe. In my country (Malaysia) hard to find fermented soy bean, so i change it to miso paste. Since the miso already salty, i didnt put any salt. Can it achieve the same taste? Thanks

Hi JinJoo, I was so pleased to come across your recipe for gochujang( both versions actually ). I have loved using gochujang ( Hot Pepper paste ) for years but recently I had a heart attack and needed to change to a low sodium diet. so i’ve adapted to my diet change by preparing foods myself. I am hoping your recipes will do the trick. I am starting with the instant version first. ( Currently the rice mixture is cooling down. So I can’t tell you how it turned out just yet.My only change is cutting back on the sodium. I am hoping it still works as well as it should. I do have a question related to the long version of gochujang. I was wondering if you heard of an indoor version of fermentation, possibly using sunlamps or something like that. This way I have much more control over conditions which I don’t if I try to ferment it outside. Let me know if you heard of an indoor fermentation alternative. I’ll also let you know how the low sodium version turns out.

Hello Curtis, soo the reduction of salt and the lack of direct sunlight (UV) (if you decide to ferment indoors) may allow mold to grow easily on top. One way to discourage that is to ferment it in the fridge if you can. It will just ferment really slow – probably 2-3 times longer. Also, the sprinkling of the salt on top will prevent molds so try reducing the overall salt amount but making sure to sprinkle some salt on top after you put it in the container. One tip I found on the Korean internet which I haven’t tried is to layer 2-3 pieces of gim (korean dried seaweed nori – untoasted or seasoned) on top and then sprinkling a good amount of salt on top of the gim to just totally stop the mold. So this would possibly work (I haven’t tried it but would love to hear back if you try it) indoors since all that would eliminate the sunlight anyway. Hope this helps. Good luck!!

Since the Plum Syrup in the recipe is “optional,” to what degree does its omission change the taste/outcome? For example, it’s my understanding (which may be entirely wrong) that Plum syrup neutralizes other strong tastes like the fermented soybean. Anyway, our goal is to limit sugar as much as possible…

The plum syrup adds just a little more smooth and sweet flavor. Omitting it will not change much. If you want you can reduce the rice syrup a little too. Just by making my recipe, you are reducing the sugar a whole lot as you know store bought gochujang’s main #1 ingredient is corn syrup.

Hi Sun. A regular soybean powder is totally different from Fermented Meju soybean powder. I am afraid you will get a totally different kind of paste if you don’t use the meju powder. The meju powder has a special deep fermented flavor which will be missing, not to mention the fact that it will not be fermenting at all. Sorry that my answer is not positive. Thanks for asking!

HI Sang, thanks for asking. There are several reasons – one is that rice syrup is the traditional ingredient that was always used in making gochujang which gives you better flavor and allows for better fermentation. And as you may know, corn syrup is not very good for your health whereas rice syrup is more naturally made. Hope that helps. Thank you.

Hi Rose, while I have not ever made gochujang with honey or have seen anyone using it instead of rice syrup, I think it would be possible. But because honey has natural anti-bacterial properties (due to the density), I would recommend that you use raw honey and also dilute it with water before adding it. Which then will probably make it more water than rice syrup. If that’s the case, you should reduce the malt barley + sweet rice mixture a bit more than 20%. Hope it works for you! Please let me know how it turns out because I’m really curious to know. Thanks for asking.

Quick question, as I get ready to order the ingredients….roughly how much does the 2 cups of gochugaru (fine) weight? Will ordering a pound be enough? Looking forwards to trying this, since I keep running out of the store-bought stuff!

And out of curiousity, if I were to use the long recipe, which calls for saccharifying the malt barley and rice flour instead of using more rice syrup, is there any reason I could not start using it immediately same as the quick version?

p.s. Have you tried holding the barley/rice flour mix at different temperatures? Say, 148*, where the beta amylase enzymes are most efficient? Or even up in the 150*s, where you should get more complex sugars?

1 cup of gochukaru weighs about 96 grams (3.3 oz) so 1 lb is more than enough. I don’t see why you could not start using the long recipe version right away – it’s just that the full deep and complex flavors will not be there. I have not tried holding the barley mix at higher temperature because 60 C has worked well for me. But you are welcome to try a bit more higher temperatures but I believe a too high a temperature (like 150’s ) will most likely degrade the fermentability of gochujang (since it starts to degrade after 149). Fermentability is probably more important in gochujang than regular brewing situation. In Korea, the traditional recipe has always said to hold it somewhere between 60C (140) to 62 (143.6 F) so I assumed that worked best for gochujang fermentation. Thank you so much for asking and would love to hear back any results if you try something different!

Hi. I lived in Korea in 1980 for one year. I adopted my daughter from there. I had a Korean friend there that taught me to cook several Korean dishes. She. Taught me any easy way to make gonchujong but I can’t remember all of it. I know it didn’t use all the stuff you use but I know it used the chilli powder and a lot of salt. I just can’t remember the wetting agent and if there was any sweetener in it. Please help me if you can. Thanks Diane

HI Diane, Well, the recipe I have here is pretty easy to do and tastes pretty good too. I know some people make it with Deonjang or with MIso but that would not require a lot of salt because that’s already salty. As for the wetting agent, it would be some kind of syrup (corn syrup maybe if not rice syrup) and soju. Without meju powder or Doenjang/Miso, I am not sure how you would make gochujang because you cannot get the funky taste without these ingredients. Hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

I wasn’t really looking for a gochujang recipe, but once I came upon this I HAD to make it. So, thanks so much JinJoo! It was so satisfying to stir in the final ingredients and have the mix turn into something I’d only seen in bright red containers.

I’d like to provide a little cost breakdown if you’ll indulge me. I live in New York City and purchased all my ingredients from H Mart- even though I could have found them in Flushing for cheaper. Since this is a Korean market in America, my size choices were limited. 1-3lb. bags were my only option, except for the salt, but I could use that for other things. Also, I copied down the Korean translations for the ingredients from your traditional gochujang recipe and that really helped me find the exact ingredients. The stockers at the store were really helpful: $5.99 700gm rice syrup $9.99 2 lb. fermented soybean powder $5.49 1 lb. fine Korean chili powder $5.99 1 lb. sweet rice flour $3.99 3 lb. coarse Korean sea salt Total cost: $31.45

Just some tips for anyone else trying this. Don’t leave the water and sweet rice powder alone to heat up to a boil. I did this and came back to a clumpy mess. Luckily I whipped the heck out of it and was able to get it evenly distributed again. I got impatient and took it off the flame after simmering for just 8 minutes and I used an ice bath to cool the mixture to room temperature. I estimate it took about 20 minutes. I stuck a thermometer in it and stirred until it reached 70*F. Then I used it immediately for a rub. Sorry, the rest that went into the fridge can mature for 2-3 days. If I’ve got fresh homemade gochujang, I’m gonna use it!

Hi! Thank you so much for all the info and feedback. I think I do say to “stir often to prevent lumps and burning” when cooking sweet rice powder. Perhaps I need to make that more clear. It sounds like you got all the right ingredients. BTW, you mention that you are going to mature in the fridge for 2-3 days..?? I state that it should be fermented outside (if possible) for few months. At least for 2-3 months. I just wanted to make sure you have that info. BTW, I saw that you gave it only 4 stars. Can I ask how I can improve this recipe? I mean I know the recipe def. works – since I have been using this recipe time and time again with great results but wonder if there are some info that seems to be missing for you. Thank you!

I would just like to make sure, from looking at your comment, how long yo think we should leave the paste outisde. Your recipe and instructions say 2-3 days, but in this comment you say this is wrong, and it is 2-3 months. Which is better ? thankyou 🙂

So there are two different versions (traditional and then this easy almost instant version) It’s 2-3 days at room temp for this instant version and then 2-3 months outside for the traditional version (different recipe). Hope that’s clear. Thanks for asking.

Yes, it would not really turn out the same. You will notice the gochugaru pieces in your gochujang if you use the regular kind. If you cannot buy fine gochugaru for gochujang, you should at least grind it further with a blender at home. Good luck!

Sure! The spiciness of gochujang all depends on how spicy the red chili powder is. Koreans either make it with less spicy powder from chilis having about 1000-2000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units) or mixing in the less spicy with more spicy (4000-7000 SHU) pepper powder. The spicy pepper powder is similar to Jalapeno spicy level. You cannot really reduce the amount of chili powder used but you can vary by choosing a less spicy chili powder or adding a bit more rice syrup should you need to. Hope that helps!

That does help, thanks! But what I really want to do is make if more spicy. I’ve spent some time in Korea and really love the food (especially the spicy foods) and I’ve found that gochujang can enhance the flavor of many non-Korean foods. I’m also looking forward to making some teokbokki.

OH! Got it! Soo.. if you can get it, buy gochukaru made from Cheongyang Gochu (청양고추)and mix that in with the regular gochukaru. Cheongyang Gochu is the one that makes it really spicy. I totally know what you mean – gochujang does enhance many foods that are not Korean. I will be sharing a post of some of my favorite recipes that use gochujang so stay tuned! And I just posted a gochujang pancake recipe. I hope you are following my blog. 🙂

Chungjungone is one of the few gluten free ones. But for the best flavor possible is hands down the home made kind. The store bought ones really does not have the true deep funky doenjang like funky flavor. But practically speaking this really makes a difference if you are going to enjoy its full flavor by making gochujang jjigae, tteokbokki or the taste difference matters to you and basically eating lots of it. The commercial ones will be sweeter and taste like siracha sauce minus the sourness. Hope that helps.

Hi JinJoo-How would you compare the quicker (instant) one to your traditional recipe in depth of flavor etc.. I just don’t want to be missing that certain taste when I use it in recipes. I’m looking to make a Korean rice bowl (Dolsot Bibimbap) and also a sauce for chicken wings. I think I will not buy the linked brand after your advice. I could just use sriracha if that’s the case. Also, the link to your store is not working. I clicked on it so I could buy some of the ingredients and you would get credit. Would it matter if I sought out organic ingredients where possible if I were making your instant recipe? I try to eat organic when possible. Thanks so much!

Well, Thank you so much for trying to buy the ingredient through my site. Amazon has done away with the store and now I have to setup a new one. So I was merely trying to compared it to Siracha to make a point about the difference in flavor. I definitely think even the commercial gochujang has much more flavor than Siracha…Siracha totally does not have any earthy, deeper flavor which gochujang does. AS for the difference between instant recipe and the full version, again, there’s a big difference in depth of flavor. And if you were to compare between the instant and the store bought, the instant one would still have more flavor but it may not be as huge. Sure, organic ingredients will work great always.

Hello! I was wondering how the Chung Jung One brand that you link to on Amanzon compares to the ‘instant’ (quicker!) one here? I read in your other post (the one where it takes a few days to make it) that you said the Chung Jung One brand is not complex and fermented like the Korean ones but still okay. So I’m just wondering if I’m doing myself any favors by trying to get all the ingredients together and make this one or if I should just buy that one. Is one better than the other? If this one has a little more complex flavor than the one I can purchase then it might be worth it but I’m just not sure. I’m really enjoying looking around here and just love everything you have to say! Thank you so much in advance!

HI Steven, So I guess you mean you got a Soybean Paste (Doenjang) instead? Although I have not tried making it myself, I have heard about making gochujang from doenjang. you can try my recipe but substitute sweet rice flour mixture + meju powder amount by doenjang, reduce the salt amount (since doenjang is already salty) and add a bit of soju. Also did you get FINE gochukaru? If you don’t use fine chili powder, you will end up with gochujang that is rough. Leave it at room temp for a week or so and then store in fridge. If you decide to try it, I would love to hear how it turns out for you. Good luck and thanks for asking!

Oh yeah, sorry I forgot about that part. so you should mix the paste with either just water (do not boil) or make a vegetable stock from dried shitake mushrooms and onions of the same water amount and then mix with paste first. Then mix in the rest. Adjust overall consistency with soju and malt syrup. Don’t worry too much about the consistency. You can have thicker or thinner gochujang, not a big deal. Do taste it though – it should taste pretty close to the end product, just missing the more complex, deeper umami taste and the raw flavor of the chili stronger. Good luck!

Hi JinJoo! When I first stumbled across this recipe, I was so so happy because I thought ‘yes, this is it! I can finally make my own gochujang’. This recipe was my beacon of hope. I can’t consume manufactured gochujang because they contain sweet rice wine. My only problem is that I couldn’t find mejugaru in any of the Korean stores I visited in Kuala Lumpur. If anyone from KL is reading this, please let me know where I can get this elusive ingredient.

This recipe is really wonderful, hopefully I will get to try it one day. Thank you JinJoo!

Hi Mimi. So you put it outside for it to be exposed to sun so that the sun kills off any fungus that may want to develop. This basically applies to the traditional full gochujang recipe version where it needs to ferment for 2-3 months at least. For this instant version, it will not ferment as much and so it’s not necessary that you put it outside. As I said in the post, just leave it out at room temperature for 2-3 days and then keep in the fridge for longer shelf life. Hope this answers your question. Thank you so much for asking and good luck!

Holy cow! Definitely going to try this! The only thing holding me back from making the traditional recipe was time. The ingredients seem accessible too. I love that I’ll know exactly what goes into it so I don’t have to buy the hugely expensive (for me) Chung Jung One brand on Amazon.

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NUTRITIONAL FACTS, MSG & GLUTEN FREE

–Nutritional Facts in my recipe cards are provided as an estimate and may not be accurate. Due to different brands of ingredients having different nutritional values, the values I provide here may be different from your preparation. – MSG & Corn Syrup FREE – these are never used in my recipes – Gluten Free recipe assumes you are using gluten free soy sauce (since many soy sauces contain gluten or wheat).